Technology & Innovation

According to Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies by Harvard University professor Calestous Juma, there are eight major reasons why society rejects new technologies—even technologies like coffee and refrigeration. Writing for The Washington Post, Steven Overly explores these eight reasons, among which there are several important lessons for regulators and innovators. For […]

The auto-industry “cannot wait for perfect” when it comes to self-driving technology, according to Mark Rosekind, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Writing for The Wall Street Journal, John D. Stoll explains that despite recent criticism of Tesla following a fatal accident involving the company’s Autopilot feature, the NHTSA’s main objective […]

Innovations in countless fields have transformed society and radically improved individual well-being, especially for the least fortunate. Every American’s life is now immeasurably better than it was 80 years ago. What made these dramatic improvements possible was America’s uniquely free and open society, which has brought the country to the cusp of another explosion of […]

A group of Pokémon Go players in Shreveport, Louisiana, is using the game to support local charities. According to Miles Jay Oliver writing for USA Today, players encountered several homeless people while playing and decided to form “Pokémon for Progress” to start a donation drive for the local shelter. According to one volunteer, the game […]

The “Autopilot” feature in Tesla cars that allows for semi-autonomous driving is facing calls for its removal following a second accident involving the system. Nick Jaynes at Mashable writes that Laura MacCleery, the vice president of consumer policy and mobilization at Consumer Reports, has called for Tesla to “disable hands-free operation until its systems can […]

The U.S. House of Representatives recently blocked passage of a bill that would have expanded a provision of the Patriot Act. The particular provision would have allowed banks to share financial transaction data with the federal government. According to Cristina Marcos at The Hill, the bill was introduced under fast-track procedures that prohibit amendments. Furthermore, […]

In June, a federal court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to reclassify broadband internet access as a public utility to enforce “net neutrality.” Writing for The Washington Post, Larry Downes argues that this decision will stifle innovation and deliver worse service to consumers. Downes contends that proponents of classifying broadband internet on the […]

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a lower court decision which ruled that sharing passwords could be in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The particular case, United States v. Nosal, centered on a former employee using a borrowed password to copy data from the firm’s database. However, Jason Koebler […]

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the first fatal accident involving a semi-autonomous vehicle. Last week,  a Tesla Model S collided with a tractor-trailer that had turned across an intersection on a divided highway. At the time of the accident, the Model S was in “Autopilot Mode”—a semi-autonomous feature that allows the […]

The world’s largest vertical farm is currently under construction in New Jersey. According to Ria Misra of Gizmodo, the farm will occupy a 70,000 square foot former steel mill and is expected to yield two million pounds of lettuce and other greens yearly. While vertical farms do offer the ability for agriculture to exist in […]